I am a former Pentecostal evangelist who renounced his beliefs for atheism in 1994. I have decided to write a blog where I share my thoughts and ideas about Christianity in general and the biblical God.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Christianity is a superstition

Earlier today my wife asked me what at the time I thought was an interesting question. She asked me if Christians are supposed to believe in superstitions. In my reply without thinking I blurted out that they should since their belief system is itself a superstition. After a moments thought to my reply I decided to look up the dictionary definition of superstition. I once again consulted with my Sage dictionary and thesaurus and was very pleased with its short yet precise answer.

"An irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear."

Based on this definition let's analyze it against what we know about Christianity. First off let's look at Christianity as an irrational belief. What exactly is an irrational belief? It's a belief that is neither logical and has no foundation in facts. For example: I believe that if I threw a ball up into the air that because of what I know about the laws of gravity that that ball will come right back down. Is it irrational to believe in trolls, fairies, demons, angels, unicorns, dragons, etc.? I think it is, simply because outside of the realm of fairy tales we have no objective foundation for believing in those things.

A belief that has no evidence whatsoever to support it is most likely a belief that is either irrational or a belief that it is best to hold off judgement till more information becomes available. Many try to make Christianity palatable to a modern world by dismissing the miraculous claims in the bible. But the biggest miracle of all is the one that needs to be dismissed in order to see how ridiculous Christian beliefs really are. The belief that a man claiming to be the son of God or God incarnate depending on which gospel you read, rose from the dead. Afterwards he ascended to heaven not before promising to return "soon."

Let's put this into perspective; assuming that Jesus died in 33 A.D that would mean that it has been 1,980 years since his departure from the earthly plain of existence! How soon is soon for God? It's hard to believe it but there are people today that still think that their imaginary hero of myth is one day going to come descending on a cloud with the armies of heaven in great power and glory! Like the flat earth believers they stubbornly assert that this prophesy is inevitably going to happen. Does that sound rational?

According to the definition these beliefs (superstitions) are derived from ignorance or fear. The theists are definitely ignorant about God and who or what he/she/it may be. They bicker about his will and what the bible means about this or that. It's incredible but today there are around 35,000 Christian sects in America alone. That would be 35,000 groups of believers who disagree on what they claim to believe! The most amazing thing is that they are all reading the same book and coming out with all of these different conclusions. And finally, they are all bearers of the truth!

I have said it before that fear is in fact the driving force behind Christianity followed by ignorance, in fact, it is this ignorance that inspires that fear no matter how unfounded it may seem. Our most primitive fears were driven by ignorance of the world we inhabit, nature, the universe, the unknown. Diseases were caused by demons or God's displeasure. Natural disasters were caused by God's wrath or I should say the gods since polytheism was quite popular before Judaism, Christianity, and Islam came along.

Man created gods to explain what they once did not know or understand. The gods did it was the standard reason for everything whether it was good or bad. Those days were driven by superstitious beliefs as are believers today. Christianity is just one more superstition in a long line of superstitions in general. There is no evidence that there is a God who cares about you or is made happy, sad, or angry because of how you respond to him. Your actions are inconsequential to a nonexistent being. Your beliefs might give you comfort for now but it will not take away the sting of death which all biological organisms just happen to experience. The idea of an after life is just as irrational as the negation of this life.

Religious beliefs are nothing more than the denial or reality. Of course this life is hard at times, and for some it never seems to let up, but denying your problems by imagining that there is some divine being with a purpose behind them is ridiculous. Burying your head in the sand will not make the reality of this world go away. Face your fears and crush your ignorance with knowledge so that you can put away your foolish superstitions and begin to enjoy the things you like to do in this life. You don't need permission to be happy, especially from an invisible guy in the sky. Life is what you make it, and only you can make it better for yourself through hard work and dedication.

If a superstition is irrational and it's based on ignorance and fear then I don't see how Christianity can escape being a superstition. It has all of the elements that are expected of irrational and unfounded beliefs. Therefore in conclusion in my view Christianity my friends is in fact a superstition. Christians are modern day people who are helplessly and voluntarily stuck in the dark ages.

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About Me

From 1990-1994 I was a Pentecostal evangelist from a very fundamentalist literalist church. At the time I believed I was saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost!
In those days I lived, ate, and slept the gospel. During the week I was in church on Tuesdays Thursdays, and Sunday's. On Saturday and Sunday I was usually on one of two of Brooklyn, NY street corners preaching the gospel with my partner in the ministry. My specialty was exorcisms aka as a deliverance ministry.
I believed I walked and talked with Jesus in those days every minute of every hour. I was as fanactically entrenched in my beliefs as any one could possibly be.
I have been an atheist since 1994 when I abandoned my church and former beliefs. But it was not easy and no one was able to get me to the realization that my beliefs were false and my experiences a delusion. It took my reading the Bible in its entirety to realize that the God of the Bible was not worthy of worship and was not love. I saw more morality in myself than I did in the biblical monster